The Southwest West Central Service Cooperative (SWWC) hosts the event attracting around 50 school districts for this year’s Building Identity day, held at the Redwood Area Community Center. The theme was “Knowledge is Power,” and allows students Kindergarten through twelfth grade with hearing loss to come out for a fun day together and engage in a variety of activities.

“For me, probably just doing all the activities with other kids that are similar to me,” Rylee Westby, a seventh-grader from Montevideo, said regarding what she was enjoying about the day.

The students had a plethora of activities to partake in, both indoors and outdoors. Some stations included a key-chain table, making magnets or charms, designing water bottles, cup stacking, coloring, card games and there was also a photo-op with a banner that detailed, “You are brave, kind and smart.”

The weather also offered a beautiful day for students to go outside to enjoy kickball, bean bags, jenga, ladder golf, soccer and Frisbees.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Area students play together in a kickball game on Thursday in Redwood Falls at the Building Identity event.

“I heard that there is a lot to do,” Macy Kamolz, a junior at Redwood Falls, said. “For me, it’s (about) meeting new people.”

This was Kamolz’s first year attending Building Identity, and noted her excitement about the day. For Westby, this was her third year attending the event.

“(I enjoy) seeing all of my old teachers again,” Westby said.

As the activities got started, one of the back corners of the community center main room was growing with gasps and laughs as a group of elementary students were building their cup-stacking pyramid notably high.

Showcasing their pride for what they were working on, the students ran to gather their teachers and asked to get their photo taken with their pyramid, before it eventually fell over and offered more laughs.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Area students play together in a kickball game on Thursday in Redwood Falls at the Building Identity event.

“(We love) our students seeing other students similar to them, who have a hearing loss like they do, and having similar interests or finding events,” Katelyn Grems-Nelson, a Deaf and Hard of Hearing teacher with the SWWC, said. “Like, my kids playing kickball, and there’s these other kids that want to be outside, running around, and just finding similar interests. Because, sometimes it can be isolating for some of the students to be the only one at the school with hearing loss.”

A sizable group of students ventured off outside to enjoy the sun, and engaged in a variety of games with one another.

Students from different schools and grades created teams with one another to play a game of kickball, and they offered friendly competition with racing to run the bases after strong kicks.

Across the way, students were also playing soccer with one another, bean bags and ladder golf.

Throughout the entire day, there were a handful of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, deaf and hard of hearing teachers, paras and chaperones to help assist the students and activities.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Area students work on designing their own water bottles on Thursday in Redwood Falls at the Building Identity event.

The SWWC has been hosting a Building Identity event for several years, created to celebrate and dedicate a day for hearing-loss students to build new relationships and make memories as the end of the school year nears.

“Even way back in the day, they did like sleepovers, like more of a camp type of thing,” Grems-Nelson noted. “They have a blast, and (come) from a large (regional) area.”

Among the near 50 school districts that brought collectively around 90 students to this year’s Building Identity included Marshall, Lakeview, Minneota, Murray County Central, Westbrook-Walnut Grove, Wabasso, Dawson-Boyd, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, Tracy Area, Lynd, Worthington, Hutchinson, Lac qui Parle Valley, Canby, Eden Valley-Watkins, Mountain Lake and more.

Students continued to make new relationships, check out all the activities, and kept the energy high and laughter contagious as the day went on.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Area students play soccer with one another on Thursday in Redwood Falls at the Building Identity event.

Photo by Samantha Davis: An area student plays in a bean-bag game on Thursday in Redwood Falls at the Building Identity event.

Photo by Samantha Davis: A total of around 90 students across 50 school districts from the southwest Minnesota region attended the Building Identity event on Thursday in Redwood Falls.